JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - Supplement lnnovation report - 25

Paris, France
March 6-7-8, 2018

Marine

New building process for foil
To be able to manufacture foils in mass production, a new building concept had to be
invented. The main parameters to be taken
into account for this project were: Reach an
ambitious target price (4 to 5 time cheper
than a "classic" process), insure perfect shape
of the foils section, guarantee identical weight
for all the appendages, produce one set of foils
per week over one year. Our R&D department buit 15 samples of foils over 4 months to
identify the influence of each parameter of of
the infu-jection process: pressure of the resin
injection,temperature of injection, number of
carbon layer to reach the ideal resin/fiber ratio,
ideal resin viscosity, diameter of the injection
channels, influence of the tip of the foils...The
idea was to produce the 1st set of foils using
a well-optimized Lean process. Kitting of the

carbon and glass layers, CNC machining of
the foam inserts, minimizing of the movement
for the foil builders, optimization of the working positions, are only few examples of the
work done by the project manager, the team
leader and the operators themselves. Teams
weekly meeting around a PDCA support
(Plan Do Check Act) constantly push the
process toward a needed optimization of the
production time while reducing the production risks and costs.The second set of foils was
dedicated to destructive tests. In presence of
the designers, the calculator and the Benéteau
Project manager, 2 foils were tested to breaking load, one in roll up and the second one, in
unroll. This second case is the worst configuration from a composite engineer point of view.
Indeed in this unroll case, each ply of the car-

Finalist: Multiplast Groupe Carboman
(France)
Partners: Groupe Bénéteau (France)

bon beam tend to separate from the other one
and the weak part of the structural chain is the
resistance of the resin itself. Calculation and
construction were correct as the actual breaking loads matches with the theorical breaking
loads at more than 4 tons.

Steel to composite in 110m long river cruise ship
In this project Saertex and its partner
Meyer Group, managed to replace steel
by composites out of Saertex LEO
sandwich materials in the design of a
new river cruise ship of 110 m length
and 11.4m in width.
It´s the whole sundeck including walls
and floor that was changed to composites which lead to 45 % of weight
savings for the sundeck and the walls -
and a reduction of draught of roughly
5 cm.
The main challenge was not only to
manage the technical challenges in
terms of mechanical properties of upper and lower deck and the high fire
safety standards for ship building.
It was also to convince people and authorities that composites can do like
steel and show a equivalence to steel.
In connection with the design of a
mock-up of the superstructure, the

proof of safety in terms of strength,
buckling etc. was carried out according
to the class rules.
This project started in 2014 with the
first contact of Meyer and Saertex. On
its way to realization the innovation
managers at Meyer and the Saertex
LEO engineers had to convince ship
buyers, the class society - and the
CCNR - Central Commission for the
Navigation of the Rhine in Strassbourg
about this innovative material as a alternative to traditional steel materials.
The CCNR is working on matters that
concern not only the Rhine but all inland waterways in Europe as a whole
and therefore it was a necessary requirement to get the official allowance
and a recommendation for the usage of
this material.
To convince people a serial of trials,
fire safety tests, mechanical tests and

Finalist: Saertex GmbH (Germany)
Partners: Meyer Werft (NEPTUN)
(Germany)

the creation of a complete upper deck
mock-up of 10.6 m x 11.4 m was necessary. Several visits at authorities involved in certification of river ships
were necessary to manage the project.
Additionally it was necessary to perform FEM structural analysis and perform fire tests in a fire Lab to get the
material proved by European CCNR
river ship authority.

N° 119 supplement - Innovation Report

/ jec composites magazine

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